I want that love like Romeo and Juliet. To love, to miss, to anticipate on giddy high. School when she and I met. No death to end but at age old death. So play, we young lovers, and be met. My happy smiles be upon our bed on wedding’s night do copulate. Beside the sun and moon’s shadow, thy heart airs on breeze like the weeping willow. Let this time be timeless like the brook a-babble. Pensive elixir, mortality do defend. Teenage loins do revel in-quisitive dabble, to erect stand him and her backward bend. But, poisoned lips do I do speak with, for I no more pretty lips to kiss upon. “‘Tis better loved and lost than not loved at all,” were the last words of a lonely fool. Eternity carries less weight than my past mistakes. A perfect love I wanted once, a long, long time ago. In recent years my dreams show, though, the best I could hope is to be like Juliet and Romeo.

What happened to making do with what you have? There is so much consumerism in movies nowadays.

I remember watching movies from the 70s and 80s with my family when I was a child. Those movies depicted people who would mend, fix, clean, and appreciate the “less than new” things they already had, scavenged, or otherwise acquired. Today, we throw away the things that are “less than new” that we no longer want (instead of investing some of our own TLC) and acquire the new replacement often through purchasing.

I smoked a crooked cigarette, today, pulled from a crushed hard-pack in my pocket. It reminded me of the hand-rolled cigarettes westerns often showed back in the day. And, reminded me of our “evolved” and “civilized” mind set nowadays.

It is the same way I see people treating each other in friendships, intimate relationships, and strangers. What if someone had taken a little extra time to invest in me? What if I had taken a little extra time to invest in someone? What if it is okay to have a crushed pack in your worn jeans, and smoke a crooked cigarette?

“Hello,” I cheerfully greet each customer in front of you. I take their order with a smile and serve them their food with happiness on my face.

“What are you getting?” I ask in monotone, only after ignoring to acknowledge your presence at the counter. I stare off in blank somewhere else when you stand here. I want you to know that I would prefer you not come here, be here, order here, or hang out here. This place would be better without you.

I make your food, your drink, or whatever you order in mundane manner, never adding anything special or interesting to your order out of kindness. In fact, I serve you without a smile, without cheer, and without welcome.

“Hello,” I say, cheerfully, to the person who steps to the counter after you. For you, the customer after that nuisance, I share happiness when giving you your order.

I walk in & look for my pearl of the sea. There she is! Diamonds in her eyes sparkle. Her smile is bright shining back at me. We wave. The attraction innocent & earnest. I love the way she looks at me.

“Hello.”

“Hi,” she greets with a blush & a quick wave from the hip & a smile so big it could carry the world. “I like your watch.”

I say thank you in her native language, but I sound like a child & she laughs. “You always look so pretty. I like your earrings.”

She blinks a lot when she is embarrassed & can not talk. Her cheeks & forehead wrinkle with crimson waves. When she finally looks at me, those pretty diamonds twinkle under their own power like twirling stars. “Thank you,” she says in a language only girls really seem to know. It is a high-pitched tone in lieu of words.

I can only smile back as I melt into the floor. If she were not at work, I would do more because I want more.

I wave goodbye after finishing my meal. On my way out, she always finds an excuse to come over.

When we walk in the garden, I want to have time to cup the flowers to my nose, wafting whiffs of wine, taking in its flora of ambrosia, livening the senses, and allowed to be taken by this resonance. I want to take my time. I want to enjoy. I want to linger in gentle places where soft voices grow to sing higher. I want to savor the flavors as they come. Let us move and walk, and explore and discover, in the garden that has been known to bring forth lovers. No rush; no schedule. Let us walk where we feel natural. Let us take a walk in the garden.